YOUR VIEW: Status quo neither 'outstanding' nor 'excellent'

Tuesday

Mar 31, 2009 at 12:01 AM

After reading John Nunes' op-ed, "Preserve outstanding school system" (March 24), I do not believe that he deserves re-election. The Standard-Times actually endorsed him in the race for Dartmouth School Committee, citing the "quality" of Dartmouth's schools and Nunes' status as a protector of the status quo as perhaps being a positive trait. Nunes also used the word "excellence" to describe the school system.

DAVID OLIVEIRA

After reading John Nunes' op-ed, "Preserve outstanding school system" (March 24), I do not believe that he deserves re-election. The Standard-Times actually endorsed him in the race for Dartmouth School Committee, citing the "quality" of Dartmouth's schools and Nunes' status as a protector of the status quo as perhaps being a positive trait. Nunes also used the word "excellence" to describe the school system.

For too long, The Standard-Times has been an accomplice in perpetuating the myth that the Dartmouth school system is "excellent," without ever pointing to any data or objective analysis.

Yes, the football team and the marching band, as well as some of the teachers and students, may rightly be considered "outstanding," but when I look to the Boston Globe's analysis of the 2008 MCAS performance by school district, I find Dartmouth's middle and high school average ranking to be in about the top 38 percent. That is a ranking that one could consider "good" or perhaps "a little better than average." But if a student comes home and tells his or her parents that he or she finished in the top 38 percent, is anyone going to refer to that student's performance as "outstanding" or "excellent"?

When I see that Dartmouth does not offer full-day kindergarten, despite all the recent evidence stressing the importance of early childhood education and its indicator of future academic success, I don't find anything "excellent" about a system that ignores that reality.

The question is, what is your standard of "excellence"? I'm sure that six months ago Bear Stearns, AIG and Lehman Brothers all referred to themselves as "excellent" companies, too. Or, put another way, being the area's tallest pygmy doesn't make you tall.

I know that pointing this out makes me the skunk at the town picnic, but it is only out of my concern for the education of my daughters that I make this point. I want them to be able to compete against students from across the state, the country and the globe — and not just Greater New Bedford.

Until Dartmouth and The Standard-Times recognize that we actually need vast improvements in the schools' academic performance, nothing will change, and we can all be expected to keep our heads in the sand and continue referring to our local schools as "excellent" out of some mistaken town pride.

In my opinion, no candidate for any office in Dartmouth who defends the status quo is capable of bringing about the change needed to get us to a point where we can begin to accurately describe the schools as "outstanding." If candidates don't have new ideas or plans to bring about the changes that are necessary, then they should please do us all a favor and not seek re-election.

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